Preview

Manchester City and FC Sevilla players will compete in Piraeus for the UEFA Super Cup. While the English champions will be fighting for this trophy for the first time, the Spanish club will be playing for the seventh time. But Sevilla only succeeded in 2006, after which they lost five times. The match between the Champions League and Europa League winners will kick off at the Olympiakos stadium on Wednesday at 21:00 CET.

Manchester City, who dominated the Champions League for the first time in June, will enter the Super Cup as heavy favourites. The bookmaker currently offers low odds of around 1.35:1 to 1.4:1 for the win after 90 minutes.

City have won all four of their head-to-head matches in UEFA competitions, including two Champions League group stage matches last year. Ward coach José Luis Mendilibar, who led Sevilla to their seventh Europa League title at the end of May, is eager to surprise the favourites.

“Sevilla know how to play big games in European competition. As we said Real Madrid are usually the favorites to win the Champions League, Sevilla are the favorites in the Europa League. What they have done in this competition is amazing,said Spain coach Pep Guardiola to City’s website, who is awaiting a showdown with his compatriot.

“I know coach Mendilibar from my time at Barcelona. When you see his team play you know right away it’s his team. They advance quickly, use the wings, put a lot of crosses into the box, aggressively go into penalties in the knockout phase Europe in the league they beat Manchester United, in the final they managed against AS Roma with (coach) José Mourinho, whose teams are always difficult to play against. It will be a great Super Cup.” added Guardiola, who will be without injury brace Kevin de Bruyne. City will rely more on their top scorer Erling Haaland.

So far, Sevilla have always reached the Super Cup as previous Europa League or UEFA Cup winners. They beat Barcelona 3-0 in 2006 but have since lost five times, the last three years ago. The Super Cup will have Spanish representation in at least one of the entrants for the ninth time out of the last 10 seasons. Last year Real Madrid beat Frankfurt 2-0.

“City were by far the best club in the world last season, it’s going to be a very tough game. When you play against a big team, every detail, every pass counts. They have great players so they can punish every mistake.” Sevilla midfielder Ivan Rakitic told the UEFA website.

“We have to try to be perfect even though it’s the start of the season. I’m sure we’ll have chances to score goals and win. Anything can happen. Hopefully we bring home another trophy to Sevilla.” added the thirty-five-year-old Croatian midfielder.

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Photo: Manchester City